Decluttered Kids Before and After - Decluttering Results - Minimalism Family of 4

So much has changed since we decluttered all of the kid stuff! This is our before and after the “declutter” story.

Beginning

My story starts back when I had my first son in 2014. I use to work full time and back then, we didn’t really have much clutter. When I made the transition to a full time stay at home mom is when the clutter started to creep in. Going from a full-time job to a full-time mom can be a hard transition to make.

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I am not going to lie, being a mom is a ton of work, but staying home all day can feel a little claustrophobic too. Finding myself bored or tired of being alone all day, would lead me to head out shopping. Not every shopping trip leads to a purchase. Just the fact that you are in the store means you are more likely to buy something.

Our first son is also the first grandchild, which meant lots of gifts and fun kid stuff. I would find myself constantly rearranging and organizing items in the hope that my house would look nice. The only problem was we had way too much!

When my second son was born 2 years later we accumulated even more. I had stored toys throughout our entire home. Each of my boys had a room full of toys and the living room was a second playroom. When my youngest was almost one I started to get very overwhelmed by the amount of stuff and I knew something had to change.

I felt the kids “stuff” had taken over our entire home! There was no escape from the toys and clutter.

Minimalism

I made the decision that we would cut cable TV from our budget and get Netflix instead. This saved us around $70 a month. Little did I know that I would see the documentary Minimalism. This documentary really resonated with me.

It completely changed the way I thought about stuff and our lives. I started to think, “what would happen if I got rid of some of the items I don’t need?” A few days after I saw Minimalism, I started to declutter my home. I wrote a whole blog post about how to be minimalist with a family, which you can read here.

I never thought it would take me over a year to declutter every room we have. The biggest change has been the amount of space we gained. After decluttering everything to do with my kids. Clothing and toys were the biggest clutter culprits! Once all the decluttering was done, I realized that my boys could share a room.

Decluttering toys gave us a whole extra room in our home!

The Boy’s Room

When I was decluttering I always kept a clear vision of what my ideal home looked like. Having a vision of the final product is the best way to keep yourself motivated. I knew I wanted all the toys and everything to do with my kids in one room. By having everything in one room I could reclaim my home.

We had to declutter a lot! There were so many books, toys, clothes, and furniture. By decluttering everything I realized we didn’t need 2 sets of drawers that use to be full.

At one point I decided I would move the beds into the same room and after that, there was no turning back. I put everything they used and loved into the room and everything that couldn’t fit was donated.

With all of the decluttering, we did my boys never asked for even one item that was donated! I started to question why we had so much if they never even noticed.

Something interesting happened! My boys love sharing a room. I feel they have grown closer by sharing and I think as time goes on they will like it more and more. My 5-year-old use to be scared and now that his brother is there he is now fine.

Organization

I ended up having one large shelf with all the toys and books, and 2 bins under one bed. Organizing the toys by type; lego in one bin, cars in another. This makes it easy for them to clean up all on their own.

Decluttering has its perks! I am no longer wasting time organizing and reorganizing areas of their room. It is so much easier for everyone to find things. The less you have to search through. I also see both of my children getting more creative and focusing on one toy longer than they use to.

Read More:

How to be a minimalist with a family

Waking up at 5 AM is Changing my Life Forever

Becoming minimalist for a year – What has changed?